Richard Fraser

In this paper, I describe the building and use of a new cultural-ecological museum in the Orochen Autonomous Banner in northeast China. I describe the various uses of the museum and how it is perceived by different actors, including: (1) for the presentation of ‘authentic’ Orochen culture by the museum designer; (2) for generating new economic opportunities by the local government; (3) for storing traditional handicrafts by Orochen heritage transmitters; and (4) for maintaining relationships with non-human agencies such as forest and shamanic spirits. My main argument is that while museums form a central part of the heritage tourism industry, they are experienced in highly diverse ways by different groups and stakeholders, including within individual minorities. This brings to the fore more subtle and bottom-up elements of heritage tourism, which to some extent challenge the ‘Authorised Heritage Discourse’ (AHD) of the state. Thus, as I will show, while the new museum reproduces the AHD and crystallises certain political hierarchies, it simultaneously produces more positive articulations and outcomes; for example, increased levels of minority participation, new livelihood opportunities, and genuine cultural engagement amongst heritage transmitters, and young people, and reclaiming the forest as a site of interaction with non-human agencies.

In this paper I present a case of visual repatriation amongst the
Orochen ethnic minority in Northeast China. I describe what
happens when a photo collection - the Ethel John Lindgren
Collection at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at
the University of Cambridge - is returned to a host community
who are an officially-recognised ethnic minority in China and, as a
result, are subject to particular policies, discourses, and funding
strategies associated with cultural heritage (wenhua yichan). My
main argument is that visual repatriation always has an “after-life”
- or “after-lives” - and that there is a never case of pure visual or
photoreturn. Instead, as I will show in the case of the Orochen, it
is always mediated through an existing context of social relations,
including particular hierarchies of authority and expertise, and
refracted through culturally-specific notions of tradition,
modernity, and value. While my ethnographic focus is on China
and one specific ethnic minority, I suggest this has implications
for other cases of visual repatriation and photo-return,
particularly in minority, subaltern, and postcolonial contexts.

In this paper, I describe the experience of rural-urban migration amongst herders to Ulaanbaatar's ger-districts. I show how this problematises conventional notions of rural-urban migration and suggests a particular form of urbanisation in Mongolia. Following one particular household as they move from the countryside to the city, I show how for many new migrants adaptation to urban life is tied to the transposition of existing skillsand the learning of new skillsin the new urban context. I also show some of the more problematic aspects of life in the gerdistricts, including the devaluation of herding skills and the existential impact of deskilment on gender and identity. In the process, I develop a phenomenologicallygrounded political-economy of skill, whereby social, economic, and political change can be traced at the level of human embodiment and polydirectional experiences of enskilment and deskilment.

International research has focused more attention on arid and semiarid regions in recent years, as climate change has already had adverse impacts on grasslands and local households in the Mongolian plateau. Based on meteorological data, GIMMS AVHRR NDVI3g data, and livestock records, through statistical analysis, a significantly strong warming trend and a slightly decreasing trend in precipitation were ascertained in this region. Precipitation patterns are shifting, and intensifying, extreme events, such as droughts and dzud (extremely harsh winters characterized by heavy snow and low temperature), are a major threat to vegetation growth and animal husbandry development. Following a comparative analysis approach, we explored how the vegetation and animal husbandry response to climate change and extreme weather differ between Inner Mongolia and Mongolia. We found that vegetation growth generally decreased after the mid-1990s, but began to recover from 2001 over the entire region. The agricultural intensification level is higher in Inner Mongolia than in Mongolia, and residents in Inner Mongolia have a greater awareness of unexpected disasters than those in Mongolia. To deal with these challenges, this region warrants further study on how climate extremes will impact on regional animal husbandry and local social economics on the arid and semiarid regions. This could have implications for the international community, local government, local residents, and future scientific activities in this space.

In this paper, I describe the building and use of a new cultural-ecological
museum in the Orochen Autonomous Banner in northeast China. I
describe the various uses of the museum and how it is perceived by
different actors, including: (1) for the presentation of ‘authentic’
Orochen culture by the museum designer; (2) for generating new
economic opportunities by the local government; (3) for storing
traditional handicrafts by Orochen heritage transmitters; and (4) for
maintaining relationships with non-human agencies such as forest and
shamanic spirits. My main argument is that while museums form a
central part of the heritage tourism industry, they are experienced in
highly diverse ways by different groups and stakeholders, including
within individual minorities. This brings to the fore more subtle and
bottom-up elements of heritage tourism, which to some extent
challenge the ‘Authorised Heritage Discourse’ (AHD) of the state. Thus,
as I will show, while the new museum reproduces the AHD and
crystallises certain political hierarchies, it simultaneously produces more
positive articulations and outcomes; for example, increased levels of
minority participation, new livelihood opportunities, and genuine
cultural engagement amongst heritage transmitters, and young people,
and reclaiming the forest as a site of interaction with non-human
agencies.

In this paper, I explore the use of motorcycles among herding households in Mongolia, which are fast becoming ubiquitous features of everyday life. First, I outline the position of technology in academic debates and the tendency to envision technological change in teleological and revolutionary terms. Approached from a revised perspective of skilled practice, I argue against such accounts, emphasising the polydirectional ways in which people experience technological change. I present ethnographic material describing how herding households use motorcycles in the postsocialist era, including their impact on herding strategies, the everyday practices around the ger (yurt), and their connection to subsidiary technologies such as mobile phones. I show that technological change is not experienced as a transition from 'tradition' to 'modernity', as bringing about singular improvements, or as replacing pre-existing technologies in a unilinear way. Instead, they are experienced as affording improvements and limitations , generating new skills and deskillment, leading to variations between different kinds of household, and blurring the distinctions between the traditional and the modern, the socialist and the postsocialist, and the nomadic and the sedentary.

This chapter provides an account of vernacular architecture among the Reindeer Ewenki of China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It describes the vernacular characteristics of Ewenki dwellings and their transformation over time, offering insights into the changing nature of minority-state relations and the potential future of the community.

In 2003 the chinese Reindeer-Evenki were relocated to a purpose-built settlement, justified on the grounds of environmental conservation and development. although some had favoured the move, others interpreted this as an attack on their lifeworld, with a number of herder-hunters choosing to remain in the forest where they reside in five campsites. This paper traces the development of the relocation from the perspective of three competing levels of experience: that of the national state, the regional government, and the Reindeer-Evenki themselves. although the community represents the only reindeer-herding people in china, their experiences reveal insights into the nature of minority-state relations characteristic of Northern and Inner asia, including the contradictions associated with relocation. at the same time, as little research has been carried out amongst china's Evenki minority, I update the situation by providing material from a lesser-known ethnographic region.